Flip 2--Memorial Park
4/22/2007 8:35 AM Sunday
Location: SW 7th and Washington, Beaverton
Memorial Park sits on a grassy triangle surrounded by well-manicured ranch houses on two sides and a
United Church of Christ on the third. The park itself is flat and spotted with trees, some flowering. It has rained overnight and Sunday morning traffic glides lazily by, tires making a whooshing sound on the damp pavement.
When there are no cars there comes the sound of songbirds in the trees
I am aware of footsteps behind me and I turn my head. Ambling up a path is an obese man in jeans and black t-shirt. His gait is slow and his sneakers make a trudging, shuffling sound. He is light-skinned black, with some whiskers on his chin. He asks me if I've seen his Jack Russell terrier, and I think of Heidi, whose calls I'm no longer returning, but who had called the night before, who has a Jack Russell and lives not far from here.
"He got out of the yard this morning," the man is saying. I apologize and tell him I haven't seen his dog. He points out where he lives should I come across him, whose name is Terry. Terry the Terrier.
In addition to the trees, the small park is filled with stone and marble and brick, marked on nearly every flat surface with some sort of dedication to a service member. The centerpiece of the park is a black marble monument inlaid with the seals of all the military branches. It reads:
BEAVERTON
VETERANS MEMORIAL
DEDICATED TO ALL VETERANS
ALL GAVE SOME--SOME GAVE ALL
A MEMORIAL TO THE MILITARY HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY
The monument's base is brick, on which are inscribed names of the deceased, or thank-you notes from their families. Or, on one wall, the names of Japanese-American soldiers who served
in World War II and other wars. "We Japanese Americans Proudly Served in the U.S. Armed
Forces with Honor and Loyalty," reads a plaque. There are even a couple of bricks dedicated to Civil War veterans, members of the Dalton family who, according to subsequent bricks, also served in both World Wars and Vietnam.
There is an anchor, an artillery cannon and an aircraft propeller, and there is also a tall, white
flagpole, its American and Oregon flags at half-staff because of the Virginia Tech shootings, which happened the previous Monday.
The rain has knocked down many of the cherry blossoms, which lie wilted on the grass and pavement, like the dead soldiers to which the park is dedicated. There are fewer bird songs and more traffic now, as the church parking lot across the street starts to fill.
VETERANS MEMORIAL
DEDICATED TO ALL VETERANS
ALL GAVE SOME--SOME GAVE ALL
A MEMORIAL TO THE MILITARY HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY
The monument's base is brick, on which are inscribed names of the deceased, or thank-you notes from their families. Or, on one wall, the names of Japanese-American soldiers who served
in World War II and other wars. "We Japanese Americans Proudly Served in the U.S. Armed
Forces with Honor and Loyalty," reads a plaque. There are even a couple of bricks dedicated to Civil War veterans, members of the Dalton family who, according to subsequent bricks, also served in both World Wars and Vietnam.There is an anchor, an artillery cannon and an aircraft propeller, and there is also a tall, white
flagpole, its American and Oregon flags at half-staff because of the Virginia Tech shootings, which happened the previous Monday.
The rain has knocked down many of the cherry blossoms, which lie wilted on the grass and pavement, like the dead soldiers to which the park is dedicated. There are fewer bird songs and more traffic now, as the church parking lot across the street starts to fill.
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